Formed wire support



. 2 1967 s. 1. SAPHIRSTEIN 2 FORMED WIRE SUPPORT Filed D80. 17, 1964 2/i Z5 Z9 Z7 M INVFNTOR.

I; SUMNER l. SAPHIRSTEIN a 9 1 f/ W u 1 n United States Patent ()fiice gassets Patented Feb. 21, 1967 3,305,102 FORMED WIRE SUPPORT Sumner I.Saehirstein, 16 E. Maxwell Drive, West Hartford, Conn. 06107 Filed Dec.17, 1964, Ser. No. 419,032 4 Claims. (Cl. 211-184) This inventionrelates to an improved support for holding and supporting books, files,phonograph records and similar articles. More particularly, the presentinvention is a unitary support formed of metal wire and especiallyadapted and designed for insertion into a wooden or similar base such asa shelf, for instance.

A principal object of the present invention is to provide an improvedmetal Wire support which is very inexpensive, occupies a minimum ofspace and is highly efiicient in supporting, separating and holding abroad variety of articles having many dilferent shapes and sizes.

Another object of the present invention is to provide such a unitaryformed wire support formed in a common planar axis and having improvedmeans for hearing laterally upon a wooden base or similar cooperativemeans into which it is inserted.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide an improvedunitary formed Wire support for attachment to spaced holes in a woodenbase which is configured to effect a Wedging action upon insertion intosuch wooden base.

A further object of the present invention is to provide improved wedgingaction and rigid support in a formed wire support employing theresiliency of the material when sprung into alignment for engagement ina suitable base.

These and other objects and features of the present invention will bemore fully understood from the following detailed description of severalembodiments together with the accompanying drawings and its scope willbe pointed out in the appended claims.

In the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a side elevational view of one form of the present inventionhaving a substantially inverted V configuration;

FIGURE 2 is a side elevational view of another form of the presentinvention having an upper arm portion and A two parallel lower armportions joined in a right angular configuration;

FIGURE 3 is a side elevational view of another embodiment of the presentinvention having three right angularly disposed arms as in FIGURE 2 butof different proportionality;

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged, partially cross-sectional view of a supportsection of the formed wire support of the present invention illustratingits initial insertion into one of the spaced holes provided in a woodenbase;

FIGURE 5 is an enlarged partially cross-sectional view of the supportsection of FIGURE 4 upon its full insertion into a wooden baseillustrating the Wedging action achieved by the present invention.

The present invention in its most basic form comprises a unitary wiresupport configured for attachment to spaced holes in a base of Wood ormaterial having similar characteristics of strength and deformabilitysuch as the synthetically formed material sold commercially under thetrademark Novoply. The metal wire is perferably of a resilient type andis formed into a body section having at least two arm portions. Twoopposed support sections are appended to the arm portions, the entiretyhaving a common planar axis. The support sections are terminated insubstantially parallel ends which are adapted to be received in thespaced holes in the aforementioned base. Additionally, each supportsection is formed into a right angular shoulder adjacent its end, whichshoulder bears laterally upon the wooden base when the end is insertedinto the base. In its preferred and most effective embodiment, thepresent invention has the previously described right angular shoulderadjacent its end configured so that the right angular bend has an insideradius which, upon the full and complete insertion of the end into thehole of the base, wedges against the top portion of the hole in the basethereby more efiiciently securing the formed wire support in its desiredposition. Moreover, it has been found that the inside radius of suchright angular bend is preferably less than the diameter of the metalwire of which the support is fabricated in using metal wire of the orderof one-eighth inch width thickness, for example. In most cases it hasbeen found that the desirable wedging action of the formed wire supportof the present invention which is afforded by the inside radius of theright angularly bent shoulder of the support section, preferably has aninside radius bend of not more than the diameter of the metal wire butnot less than the radius of such metal wire.

Referring now to the drawings, there is shown in FIG- URE l a unitaryformed wire support 10 of the present invention which comprises a bodysection of two sepa rated arm portions 11 and 12 joined at the top in aninverted V configuration. Two opposed support sections are appended fromthe arm sections 11 and 12, each of the support sections 13 and 14having a substantially parallel disposed end as shown at 15 and 16 and aright angular shoulder adjacent its end as shown at 17 and 18. Theinvention may of course take a number of different configurations andforms and FIGURES 2 and 3 illustrate two alternative configurations ofthe body section. FIG- URE 2 shows a unitary formed wire supportindicated generally at 20 having an upper arm portion 21 and twoparallel lower arm portions 22 and 23 joined in right angularconfiguration with the upper arm portion 21. Appended to each lower armportion is a support section such as those shown generally at 24 and'25.As in the case of the embodiment of the present invention illustrated inFIGURE 1, the opposed support sections of the embodiment of FIGURE 2 asillustrated at 24, 25 are formed into right angular shoulders 26 and 27and each support section is terminated in an end such as those shown at28 and 29, which ends are disposed in substantially parallelrelationship so as to be insertable in parallel holes in a wooden base.

FIGURE 3 similarly is an embodiment of the present invention having thebody section comprised of three arm portions 31, 32 and 33 joined inright angular configuration with two opposed support sections dependingfrom the parallel arm portions 32 and 33, respectively. As in FIGURES 1and 2, the embodiment illustrated in FIG- URE 3 includes a right angularshoulder adjacent each parallel end of the two support sections forbearing laterally upon a wooden base upon insertion of the parallel endsections 38 and 39 into spaced parallel holes in a wooden or similarbase.

All three of the embodiments illustrated in FIGURES 1, 2 and 3 includeright angular shoulders which are configured in a particular way so asto provide a small inside radius bend which, upon insertion of the endof the support section into the hole in a wooden base, provides awedging action resulting in improved rigidity of the formed wire supportin its desired position. This particular feature of the presentinvention may be more clearly seen in the enlarged views of'FIGURES 4and 5. In FIGURE 4 there is shown a wooden base 40 having a hole drilledtherein 41 to receive the end 42 of the support section 43 (partlyshown) of a formed wire support embodying the present invention. Itshould be noted that the end 42 is disposed at right angles to theshoulder 44 so as to form a bend having an inside radius as illustratedat 45. As seen in FIGURE 4, the hole 41 is of such diameter to receivethe end 42 snugly, and in practice may be a force fit. However, the hole41 is of greater depth than the length of the end 42. The reason anddesirability of this relationship will be seen more clearly in FIGURE 5wherein like numbers bear the same numerical designation. FIGURE 5illustrates the feature of the present invention by reason of which theright angularly disposed shoulder adjacent the end of the supportsection of the present invention is wedged against and into the spacedholes of a woo-den base into which it is received. As will be noted inFIGURE 5, the end section 4-2 is inserted its full length into the hole41 in the wood base 49, the hole 41 being of greater depth than thelength of the end 42. The right angularly disposed shoulder 44 of theformed support section is resting against the top surface of the woodenbase providing a substantial bearing surface between the two therebyproviding improved rigidity as is desired in the placement and fittingof the formed wire support of the present invention. Such bearing isprincipally in a lateral direction and in addition to providing improvedrigidity also predetermines the depth to which the parallel ends of theformed wire sup-port of the present invention may be inserted into anappropriate wooden base. Thus, once having been so inserted, the formedwire support of the present invention remains in that establishedposition until removed as may be desired. Referring again to FIGURE 5,it will be seen further that the rounded inner radius formed between thetwo right angularly disposed portions comprising the end 42 and theshoulder 44, has been fitted rightly against the top edge of the hole 41deforming the adjoining portion of the wood base so that it is forceablywedged against the end 42 retaining the support section of the formedwire sup-port of the present invention firmly and rightly in place inthe spaced holes provided in an appropriate base.

In addition to the wedging action afforded by the particularconfiguration of the right angularly disposed shoulder of the supportsections of the present invention, the arms from which the supportsections depend are preferably spaced and configured that the ends suchas illustrated at 38 and 39 of FIGURE 3, for instance, are not exactlyparallel but rather substantially parallel before insertion into thespaced holes of a wooden base. In other words, the substantiallyparallel ends 38 and 39 are preferably spread in a position such as thatdefined by the dotted outline shown in FIGURE 3 and indicated at 38a and39a. When the formed wire support of the present invention is configuredand shaped in this preferred manner the two arms 32 and 33 of the formedwire support as illustrated in FIGURE 3 must be sprung together beforethe ends 38 and 39 will be in position to be inserted into parallelspaced holes in a wooden base. Consequently, when such resilientlysprung ends are inserted into the holes of the wooden base, there is anincreased firm pressure created against the wedged poition of the edgeof the parallel holes in the wooden base as illustrated and explained inconnection with FIGURES 4 and 5. This arrangement as will be apparent tothose skilled in the art improves the holding qualities, rigidity andcapability of support afiorded by the present invention.

Thus the present invention in addition to being inexpensive, easy tofabricate, and highly effective in its supporting function has theadditional features afforded by the laterally bearing portion of itssupphrt sections, the wedging of its ends in spaced holes in a suitablebase and the resiliently sprung arm portions which add to itsdesirability and effectiveness.

Since many changes could be made in the above construction and manyapparently different embodiments of the invention could be made withoutdeparting from the scope or spirit thereof, it is intended that allmatter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanyingdrawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limitingsense.

Having thus described the invention, I claim:

1. A support assembly for books, records and the like comprising aunitary formed wire support and a base member of wood and the likehaving spaced substantially parallel extending holes therein, said wiresupport comprising a resilient metal wire body section having at leasttwo arm portions, two opposed support sections appended to said armportions and having a common planar axis therewith, said supportsections having parallel end portions received in said spaced holes insaid base member and each support section having a right angularshoulder adjacent its end portion having a bend with an inside radiusless than the diameter of said metal wire, said right-angular shoulderbearing laterally upon the upper surface of said base member adjacentsaid holes, said end portions being of lesser length than the thicknessof said base member and the depth of said holes therein, said wiresupport being resiliently defiectable to spring said end portions intospaced substantially parallel extending relationship for insertion intosaid holes of said base member.

2. The support assembly of claim 1 wherein said wire support has onlytwo arm portions which are substantially straight and ioined in aninverted V-sha-ped configuration.

3. The support assembly of claim 1 wherein said wire support has anupper arm portion and two parallel arm portions at the ends thereofextending in substantially right angular configuration.

4. A unitary formed wire support for attachment to spaced holes in awooden base, comprising a resilient metal wire body section having atleast two arm portions, two opposed support sections appended to saidann 'portions and having a common planar axis therewith, said supportsections having parallel end portions adapted to be received in saidwooden base and each support section being formed in a right angularshoulder adjacent its end portion for bearing laterally upon the uppersurface of the wooden base, said formed right angular shoulder having aninside radius bend of not more than the diameter of said metal wire andnot less than the radius of said metal wire.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 301,204 7/1884Berry 129-16 2,933,195 4/1960 Radek 2l1-184X 3,185,307 5/1965 Higgins211 10 CLAUDE A. LE ROY, Primary Examiner.

R. P. SEI'ITER, Assistant Examiner.

1. A SUPPORT ASSEMBLY FOR BOOKS, RECORDS AND THE LIKE COMPRISING AUNITARY FORMED WIRE SUPPORT AND A BASE MEMBER OF WOOD AND THE LIKEHAVING SPACED SUBSTANTIALLY PARALLEL EXTENDING HOLES THEREIN, SAID WIRESUPPORT COMPRISING A RESILIENT METAL WIRE BODY SECTION HAVING AT LEASTTWO ARM PORTIONS, TWO OPPOSED SUPPORT SECTIONS APPENDED TO SAID ARMPORTIONS AND HAVING A COMMON PLANAR AXIS THEREWITH, SAID SUPPORTSECTIONS HAVING PARALLEL END PORTIONS RECEIVED IN SAID SPACED HOLES INSAID BASE MEMBER AND EACH SUPPORT SECTION HAVING A RIGHT ANGULARSHOULDER ADJACENT ITS END PORTION HAVING A BEND WITH AN INSIDE RADIUSLESS THAN THE DIAMETER OF SAID METAL WIRE, SAID RIGHT-ANGULAR SHOULDERBEARING LATERALLY UPON THE UPPER SURFACE OF SAID BASE MEMBER ADJACENTSAID HOLES, SAID END PORTIONS BEING OF LESSER LENGTH THAN THE THICKNESSOF SAID BASE MEMBER AND THE DEPTH OF SAID HOLES THEREIN, SAID WIRESUPPORT BEING RESILIENTLY DEFLECTABLE TO SPRING SAID END PORTIONS INTOSPACED SUBSTANTIALLY PARALLEL EXTENDING RELATIONSHIP FOR INSERTION INTOSAID HOLES OF SAID BASE MEMBER.